Herb Guide: How to Use—and Store—Fresh Herbs

Cooking with fresh herbs adds brightness and flavour to dishes. But since these verdant leaves tend to be small and fragile, it's smart to learn how to lengthen their life so they stay fresh longer

Start with this guide for ho to cook with and store fresh herbs, including freezing tips as well as easy ways to get more mileage out of unused sprigs to flavour your meals. And if you've ever wondered about the difference between using fresh herbs and dried ones in recipes, we've got you covered

Cooking With Fresh Herbs

Using fresh herbs to enhance your favourite dinner recipes may seem like advanced-level stuff, but what it's actually a simple method to pick up. Start by, figuring out what kind of flavour you want to add in. To assess the freshness at the store, squeeze a leaf between two fingers and sniff - a strong smell and slightly moist touch means the herb is ready for use.

Then, determine whether the herb you have is tender or on the hardy side. Tender herbs like basil, parsley and cilantro have soft leaves and stems, while hardy herbs such as rosemary, thyme and oregano sport sturdier foliage and rigid stems. Tender fresh herbs are often best added to dishes toward the end of cooking, since their leaves and flavour are delicate. Hardier herbs can take the heat, so they're often added in the beginning of recipes in order to infuse a soup or stew with flavour as it simmers away on the stove.

Lets take a look at how these popular herb factors into your recipes:

Cooking With Basil: Fragrant basil's glossy soft leaves are the backbone of pesto, but they are also excellent when paired with spaghetti and meatballs, tomato salad and every kind of pizza. You can add snipped basil to greens or grains, fold it into scrambled eggs or pair it with mozarella and prosciutto.

Cooking With Parsley: Parsley is so much more than a pretty plate garnish. Italian parsley, also called flat-leaf, features feathery serrated leaves that pack a bigger flavour punch than the curly kind. Chop and sprinkle over sauteed green beans, mix it into rice or add it to bean salads.

Cooking With Rosemary: Piney rosemary has stiff needle-like spikes and a woody stem, making it ideal for tying in a bundle to use as a brush for basting grilled meats, especially lamb. Or add rosemary sprigs to roasted potatoes, focaccia, chicken and pasta dishes. Because of its hardier structure, you can add this herb at the beginning of your cooking and let is slowly soften in the heat.

Cooking With Oregano: Fuzzy oval leaves signal oregano, a pungent hardy herb that's a workhouse in the kitchen. The scent of this fresh herb will remind you of italian food, and indeed it pairs perfectly with tomato sauce, grilled eggplant, pesto, salad dressings, zucchini and meatballs.

Cooking with Sage: This classic Thanksgiving herb has long velvety leaves that are typically added to stuffing, tossed with roasted sweet potatoes or matched with pork dishes. Sage is also fantastic when friend whole and then served over risotto or ravioli with butter sauce.

Cooking With Thyme: Grassy and fresh, thyme's tiny pointed leaves can be stripped off the stem and chopped (you can make leaf removal easier with this herb comb) or whole sprigs can be added to pan roasts. Try thyme with salmon, flat breads, compound butter or soup or use it when poaching fruits like pears or peaches.

Cooking with Cilantro: Zesty cilantro has a lemony, peppery taste to it. A visual cousin to parsley, the distinctive leaves provide an elegant garnish. The stems are just as flavourful, so the entire herb can be used in the blender. Add it to pesto sauce, salads, fajitas or burritos.

Cooking With Dill: One of the many delicate herbs, eyelash-shaped Dill is best added at the end of the cooking process to maximise its sweet flavour. It tastes great when folded into potato salad or used in a dressing for salmon. It pairs as well with beets as it does with lamb, and of course, it's at the heart of vegetable pickling.

Cooking With Mint: Refreshing and versatile, mint works well in your cocktails, fruit salad, and even pea soup. Paired with spicy stir-fry, it has a cooling effect, while it ups the sweet factor in a berries and yoghurt parfait or as a garnish for frozen yoghurt cups. Try mint with sugar snap peas and ricotta salatta for an easy summer dish.

How to Wash Fresh Herbs

Whether your fresh herbs come from the grocery store, farmer's market or your own backyard, it;s a good idea to wash them before storing your hail in the refrigerator. To wash fresh herbs, both tender and hardy, follow these steps:

Place herbs in a colander and rinse well under cool water.

Gently rub leaves with your fingers to loosen any dirt and rinse again.

Shake herbs by their stems to dislodge any remaining soil.

Place herbs in a salad spinner to get them as dry as possible. Too much moisture on leaves can feed decay, causing fresh herbs to break down and go bad, but thoroughly drying the leaves can help lengthen life in the fridge.

How Long Do Fresh Herbs Last?

With the right type of storage, your fresh herbs should stay green and tasty for up to a coule of weeks. Each herb type benefits from a unique storage approach. Here's what to know about keeping herbs for longer, whether they're tender or hardy:

How to Store Tender Herbs

Tender herbs need some TLC when it comes to storage, so treat delicate greens like fresh cilantro, basil, parsley, dill and mint the way you would a bouquet of flowers. Once they're clean and dry, simply snip the ends of each bunch and place it in a few inches of water. Our Herb Keeper promotes proper airflow, controlled humidity, and gives them that hydration to truly thrive. Change the water every couple of days to improve freshness.

Most tender herbs can live in your fridge, though basil is the exception. The soft leaves on this herb will blacken if exposed to the cold, so leave it on your counter (bonus: the fragrance will perfume your kitchen as you cook).

How to Store Hardy Herbs

As for storing hardy herbs like rosemary, chives, thyme, sage and oregano, these more robust varieties can be stored in the small OXO Herb Keeper. The will retain their freshness thanks to a unique basket that holds the herbs gently away from the side walls to prevent wilting or rotting.